Law enforcement may wait to charge those hospitalized

Several factors may be at work in the pending charges against a teen investigators say they believe is at-fault in a fatal crash last Wednesday.

TABITHA CLARK - Daily News Staff

BEULAVILLE — Several factors may be at work in the pending charges against a teen investigators say they believe is at-fault in a fatal crash last Wednesday.

Sgt. M.L. Collier of the North Carolina Highway Patrol at the Duplin County station said that to his knowledge, Alex Hayes, 17, of Chinquapin, has not yet been charged in the Dec. 12 crash that killed Jolene Edens, 36, of Chinquapin. Collier, who was not directly involved in the case, said he believes they’re waiting on a team to reconstruct the crash to complete the report on the wreck. Additionally, Collier confirmed in an earlier interview that Hayes was hospitalized following the crash. He didn’t know if Hayes was still in the hospital or not, and hospital administrators did not have information on him available for release.

Sgt. R.E. Dudley of the NCHP station in Onslow County said that the timeframe for charging a suspect in a motor vehicle fatality or serious wreck is up to the discretion of the law enforcement officer — to a point.

“It goes to a trooper’s discretion,” he said. “A lot of times, if the person who has committed the violation is critically injured, and it doesn’t look like they will make it, we may sit on it for a few days to see if the person is going to pull through.

“You don’t want to charge someone who then dies a day later. In many cases, that can wait for a few days.”

However, that is not the case when troopers need a blood sample to test for impairment levels. Dudley said that if a case is possibly alcohol-related, troopers have to file charges right away so they can get a blood test to submit to the State Bureau of Investigation.

“We need to get that person charged, even if they are critical,” he said. Even then, troopers may not get access to the individual.

“If the charge is a typical misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, the law now requires that we obtain a blood sample and submit it to the SBI (even) if the person does not appear to be under the influence,” he said.

As far as when papers are served to the individual, once again, it depends on the situation.

“If it is a misdemeanor, and they’ve lived in Onslow County for 30 years with a clean driving record, and they pulled out in front of someone and caused a death, we could cite them and leave the citation with the charge nurse or a family member,” Dudley said. “If it is a felony, we could go ahead and charge them, but we would have to wait until they are released from the hospital before taking them before the magistrate.”

Dudley said that the only time troopers take a person into custody is when they leave the hospital.

“If they are charged with a felony, we would make contact with the hospital police or security so we can serve the warrant when they are discharged,” he said.

He said the only time things get muddy is when a case is not clear cut.

“We may typically have to enlist the resources of the reconstruction unit to figure out the cause of the wreck,” he said. “Then, three days later when that is finished, a blood sample would be useless.”

Similar discretion and factors are taken when charging someone for misdemeanors and felonies with the Jacksonville Police Department.

Beth Purcell, media liaison for the Department of Public Safety, stated in an email that police need to consider a variety of factors when the subject charged with a crime is in the hospital.

“Depending upon the condition of the patient and the severity of the charges, there are options that can be taken by police when the subject is in the hospital,” she stated. “If the charge is a misdemeanor, the subject can be cited and release or issued a criminal summons with the promise to appear on their court date.”

Purcell stated that police may choose to wait until the subject is medically cleared to charge them because, before then, their condition may affect their ability to appear in court.

When crimes are of a more serious nature, Purcell said that police may choose to post an officer at the hospital until the supposed offender is cleared by medical personnel and released to law enforcement.

“The health and medical well-being of the subject is always a primary consideration when individuals are being charged with a crime and taken into custody,” she stated.

With all the different factors for each individual case, Dudley said it is hard to explain the charging procedures in a nutshell.

Is it important to get the person charged? “Yes,” Dudley said, “because you’re going to have to get a breath test or a blood sample. So yes, it is very important to get the person charged.

“You have to look at the whole situation, all the factors and then figure out how to proceed.”

Contact Daily News Reporter Tabitha Clark at 910-219-8454 or Tabitha.Clark@jdnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @TabithaLClark or friend her on Facebook.